Melissa Archer
Melisssa Archer has been working as a program director in program development for higher education for more than 18 years. Her journey into Higher Education began with founding a private vocational school for paralegals to gain an education and career. She was recognized for business organization and published by West Law paralegal college textbooks across the world used in colleges/universities. From there, she began working as the Director of Development and Grants for the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma where she spent 6 years before coming to the University of Oklahoma as the Director of Development at the College of Architecture in fundraising. She took a break to assist in her family’s oil and gas business as the VP of the company working contracts and partnerships.
Upon her return to the University of Oklahoma she began a startup called WorkSooner at the Professional and Continuing Education college on our campus. It was there when the Oklahoma State Regents recognized what the program was doing for workforce, and she led the State of Oklahoma consortium for other colleges to partner up with the outside vendor to create more workforce for our state with funding from the Oklahoma State Regents assisting other colleges. In 2021, her first big win was speaking to the NFL ALUMNI Chapter in Dallas and along with the CEO, a casual conversation that led to grand presentation and two (2) year contracts with 43 chapters across the country known as, “The Deal.”
She had a stent into Ed Tech with Coursera in Silicon Valley leading all their colleges in the North American Region to successful launch and program creations. Within her first 8 months she was awarded Top 10 CSM on Coursera’s President’s Leadership Board in North America.
Due to family obligations, her heart brought her back to her roots at the University of Oklahoma to the Executive Academy at the Price College of Business. She works alongside colleagues as the assistant director of programs and partnerships.
Melissa has been described in her career as having a superpower for the relationships with her clients. She believes in building trust with integrity and ethics. With that she has been able to maintain long standing relationships as well as friendships with her clients not only in Oklahoma but across the country.
Melissa is known as an inverse thinker who can adapt to changing environments and manage complex change initiatives. She has been recognized in several state and national publications in business and legal topics.
Melissa received her Masters of Human Relations/Org. development and design from the University of Oklahoma with a dual major receiving credit for work in her MBA.
Outside of work, Melissa raises her 14 yr. old grandson and focuses on finding a cure for his incurable rare condition, working with doctors in Europe and trips to Houston. She also enjoys running short marathons and participating in CrossFit. Melissa has strong faith they will find their way.